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People throw around the term “agile leadership” without really knowing what it means. What makes an agile leader? What makes an effective and inspirational leader who can keep the team motivated?

Agility isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the ability to lead under any circumstance, especially in the face of unexpected challenges.

Executive training often covers how to foster personal growth in employees and find the ideal talent. However, even if you have a motivated staff, you cannot successfully lead a new business without being quick to adapt to new challenges. Whether you aspire to grow to a Fortune 100 corporation or are happy being a solopreneur, every entrepreneur needs an agile leadership style.

Why Should Entrepreneurs Be Agile?

Entrepreneurial and employment-minded people think differently, and businesses require both to function.

Entrepreneurs have different outlooks and priorities than most salaried middle managers at your typical workplace. Entrepreneurship largely entails breaking away from a traditional mindset and learning to be more a flexible, even if that means breaking some rules along the way.

Entrepreneurs need to be inherently adaptable and able to rise above in any circumstance, whether there’s a damage control plan or not. When you’re building a business, it’s impossible to prepare for every unexpected event. It’s prudent to have a mitigation plan for a natural disaster, emergency reserves for unexpected expenses and alternative plans in place in case one project fails. But there’s no way you can predict everything that will happen and how it will impact organizational effectiveness. Entrepreneurs must take personal ownership of business outcomes and be comfortable taking control in a crisis.

How To Tell If You Have An Agile Mindset

Fostering innovation, taking risks and having the ability to work well with others—these are all crucial components of an agile mindset. If the following traits describe you, you likely have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

You expressly want to innovate and try new things. If you were described as “hard to manage” in previous jobs, or just didn’t enjoy following strict instructions, chances are you’re a better entrepreneur than employee. You want change. You want to make it happen, and you’re tired of excuses. Innovation is a cornerstone of entrepreneurship, as well as agile leadership.

You take calculated risks. Risk-taking is a balancing act. You can’t go through life taking no risks whatsoever. Does it mean that you need to cash out your entire 401(k) and bet it all on one product line? No. But calculated risk-taking is what helps you grow not just as an entrepreneur, but as a person. If taking risks is something that makes you uncomfortable, start out small and work to become more confident in your instincts. An agile leader must also know when to take fewer calculated risks, if time is of the essence.

You can learn from, then live with, failure. Learning from failure is an often unsung but highly important aspect of leadership development. It’s too easy to take failures personally, especially if you are extremely passionate about what you’re doing and the results of that failure are devastating. Agile leaders know that an experience is only a failure if you failed to learn from it.

Agility is all about being able to overcome challenges, whether you saw them coming or not. Adopting an agile mindset will better prepare you to face these challenges and even look back on them fondly.